Raleigh HR startup makes first acquisition, wants to roll out ‘facial recognition terminals’

WAKE FOREST — In this new reality of social distancing, a local startup is working to roll out “contactless” facial recognition terminals to help workers get back to work.

Meet Timecentric, a Wake Forest-based HR tech startup newly founded by Adam Day and Greg Javins, focused on early-stage technologies in HR, payroll, time and labor space.

This week, the startup, financed by a group of five angel investors, announced its first acquisition: Time Rack Inc., a California-based provider of time and labor management software.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Time Rack is a 14-year-old company offering a software-as-a-service subscription mode. Its open API framework allows an employer’s payroll system to integrate with other third-party technology providers. Processes range from employee onboarding, certification management, expense management to position management, benefit management, secure document management.

Headquartered in Corona, California, it services over 500 clients and 35,000 employees nationally.

Day said Timecentric plans to retain the entire team and maintain business as usual to grow the employee base to “over 70,000 employees in 18 months.” The focus is also on preparing to grow by setting up headquarters in Wake Forest.

“We hope by the end of 2021 to have 10-15 employees here, complementing our team in California,” Day said in an email interview.

Timecentric, meanwhile, is working on rolling facial recognition terminals for employers to check in workers.

As Day explained it, the terminals capture measurements and unique images of an individuals face and creates a composite picture in memory to use for future punches. There is an initial enrollment process and then each time the employee punches in or out, the image is updated creating an iterative composite image of the employee.

“That means if an employee enrolls using a mask, then the terminal will recognize them with a mask,” he said, adding: “This is not positive identification or big brother identification; it simply compares images and verifies that this image is the same image.”

“In today’s environment post-COVID, contactless options are going to permeate everything we as individuals, employees interact with on a daily basis. We have seen a surge in interest in the northeast where regions have been extensively impacted by the virus.

“We will be making an announcement probably this summer, and then they will be generally available through our distribution network.